3 Days of Freedom (from work, that is)

Day 1

I dropped by Botak in EDSA Kamuning last June 12 and registered. It’s been a long time since I’ve been here – I think it was in 1989 when my classmates and I were looking for jerseys for the school's volleyball team. I was accommodated right away by Mark and ultrarunner Ian Alacar, project director of the Botak run on June 28, was there too to entertain my questions. The 5 mile run will start from UP Diliman’s Yilnan Road going out to Commonwealth Avenue. A quick turn right at Robinson’s Supermarket and Mercury Drugstore will lead runners to the Old Balara Road. It’s a short uphill and then a steady run towards Tumana gate. Then everybody goes back to Commonwealth and back to Yilnan Road. Ian said this will be the first time that the two lanes of Commonwealth will be closed for a race. And this will be my first time to run it - can't wait!

Day 2

While everyone was at the trail run in San Mateo, I decided to do a long easy run from MOA to Luneta Park (which I later learned is Kilometer 0) and back to Home Depot Macapagal with Rockenrun. Started at 5:30 am and paced at 8/km, it was quite a cool morning and the breeze helped me a lot in maintaining my pace and consistently running that stretch. Even had ‘small McKinley hills’ at the Film Center and the PICC where we ran up and down the driveways. We bumped into a lot of runners wearing different race singlets and I find myself thinking – looks like everyone’s getting ready for a long race! A lady in Mizuno singlet, a man in Earth Run, a couple of guys in Milo and another guy in Botak. After a quick meal at Jollibee Home Depot, we dropped by Rizal Stadium and checked out the Oval Track and the swimming pool - hmmmm, I like!

Day 3

Rest Day! My thighs were killing me after that long run and I found it difficult to go up and down the stairs so I pigged out on pasta (my personal reward for finishing almost 13km on a consistent pace - that is, no walk breaks! Hehe).